Apparatus for cutting chemical tows



July 24, 1962 lCHlZO HARUYAMA 3,045,520

APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CHEMICAL TOWS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 2, 1961y 1962 lCHlZO HARUYAMA 3,045,520

APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CHEMICAL wows Filed Oct. 2, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2ilnited States Patent 3,045,520 APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CHEMICAL TOWSIchizo Haruyama, 10 Iwaicho Hodogaya-lru, Yokohama, Japan Filed Oct. 2,1961, Ser. No. 142,400 1 Claim. (Cl. 83201) The present inventionrelates to apparatus for cutting chemical tows.

The method hitherto employed for cutting chemical tows or continuouschemical sliver is to cut them between rollers. This method, however, isdefective in the following points:

(1) Fibers stick fast to each other and dust of fibers'is formed duringcutting.

(2) It is extremely difiicult to accurately cut tows into any desiredlength.

The present invention is designed to eliminate such defects whileenabling very simple and accurate adjustment of cutting length of towsas desired.

Acording to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus forcutting chemical tows comprising each 9 several sets of back and frontrollers arranged close to each other for conveying a tow therethrough.An endless belt on which many needles are set to extend outwardlyobliquely and a band edge are arranged on the upper side of and close tothe path of tow between the sets of back and front rollers.

The endless belt slowly proceeds at right angles to the direction inwhich the tow is conveyed, while the band edge runs at high speed in adirection opposite to that of a the endless belt. The tow is thus cutwith the high speed band edge as soon as it is taken up by the obliquelyset needles.

The above and other objects, features and advantages will be apparentfrom the following description when read with reference to theaccompanying drawings which illustrates one preferred embodiment of theinvention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation showing the roller arrangement of theembodiment including back and front rollers;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view showing the cuttingmechanism of the apparatus;

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 are a front view, and leftand righthand side views ofthe same.

In the drawings, numerals '1 and 2 designate back bottom rollers andnumeral 3 designates a back top roller. A front bottom roller 4, amiddle bottom roller 5 and. a front top roller '6 are suitably disposedadjacent to the back rollers 1, 2 and 3. Top and bottom feed rollers 7and 8 are disposed rearwardly of the back rollers and a chemical tow 9is fed between the feed rollers 7 ice and 8 in the direction indicatedat A in FIG. 1 at a proper speed. To facilitate tow cutting operation,draft is applied to the tow between the front and back rollers therebyto run the two in tension.

An endless belt 10 and a band edge 11 are arranged between the front toproller 6 and the back top roller 3 and immediately above the path of thetow 9. The endless belt runs very slowly in a direction at rig-ht anglesto the direction in which the tow 9 proceeds, as indicated by the arrowin FIG. 2. A multiplicity of substantially equally spaced apart needles12 are set on the endless belt so as to extend outwardly obliquely. Theneedles 12 act to take up the tow as the belt runs.

The band edge 11 is disposed immediately behind the endless belt 10 andin operation runs at high speed in a direction opposite to that in whichthe endless belt runs to cut the tow 9 as taken up by the needles 12. Itwill be observed that the locus of the cut point forms the oblique lineof a right-angled triangle having two sides corresponding to theprogress of the tow 9 and the needles 12, respectively.

Numeral 13 designates mating bevel gears and numerals 14 and 15designate support brackets for belt pulleys on opposite sides. Numeral16 designates support legs of the apparatus. The bevel gear 13 is drivenby a shaft 17 as shown.

It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the cutting operation canbe effected accurately andrapidly without giving rise to any miscut orshort cut. Thus, the tow is cut verysharply preventing sticking togetherof tow fibers and dust formation at the cutting region. The fiberbundles out according to the invention may readily be formed intoslivers as required. It will also be appreciated that the length of cutfibers obtained may be freely controlled by changing the ratio of thesurface speed of the back rollers and that of the endless belt.

What is claimed is:

Anapparatus for cutting chemical tows comprising a roller arrangementincluding a set of back rollers and a set of front rollers for advancinga chemical tow in one direction, an endless belt having thereon amultiplicity of spaced-apart needles extending outwardly obliquely withrespect to the belt and arranged between the set of back rollers and theset of front rollers so as to travel slowly in a direction at rightangles to the direction in which the tow is advanced, and a band edgedisposed immediately behind said endless belt and adapted to run at highspeed in a direction opposite to the direction in which said endlessbelt travels, whereby the tow as taken up by said needles on the endlessbelt is effectively cut by said band edge.

No references cited.

